Tuesday, December 9, 2014
The Century Foundation Releases New Report on Unemployment
Fifteen years into the twenty-first century, African Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to be unemployed, all else equal. Younger workers, women, and the unmarried also face employment headwinds.
In a new report, TCF’s Mike Cassidy looks beyond headline employment statistics to highlight the demographics of unemployment.
Cassidy’s analysis yields four key insights:
- Race still matters, big time. African Americans are unemployed at twice the rate of whites—even when they are identical in dimensions other than skin color.
- Education is the surest path to securing employment. The unemployment rate among college grads is half that of high school dropouts.
- Sex, age, marital status, and citizenship also have meaningful impacts on unemployment, sometimes in surprising ways.
- Regression analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the labor market’s complexities, but it must be used carefully. Associations are not the same as causations.
Check out the full report, Who Are the Unemployed?.